The technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherium may not be a household name just yet but it has been gaining traction fast and although the future of the said cryptocurrencies may still be up in the air, the Blockchain itself is bound to stick around for the long haul. It has opened up a world of possibilities and can potentially revolutionize the way existing technologies and business processes function. With that in mind, we will focus on how blockchain is likely to affect Customer Relationship Management down the road.

What is Blockchain?

On the off chance you’ve not hopped onto the Bitcoin bandwagon and are totally unfamiliar with Blockchain, let us help you figure it out. Simply put, a block chain is an ever-growing list of interlinked records or ‘blocks’. These blocks are cryptographically secure and resistant to any external tampering. A blockchain functions as an open, decentralized ledger that effectively keeps track of transaction between two parties in a permanent and verifiable way.

How Blockchain will change CRM

With the basics out of the way, I think we are in a slightly better position to discuss how Blockchain can potentially alter CRM in the years to come. Here are five areas that are likely to benefit the most from this technology:

1. Enhanced security

A blockchain is literally a chain of blocks, where each block contains transactional records. Each block is connected to blocks before and after it and is cryptographically secured such that participating users are assigned network keys in order to restrict unauthorized access.

Additionally most CRM databases are presently hosted on cloud servers. Although cloud security protocols have come a long ways, Cloud security concerns are not completely unfounded. These are mainly centralized systems and thus, have an inherent single point of failure. Comparatively, blockchains are decentralized and distributed across regularly synchronized peer-to-peer networks. This makes tampering nearly impossible as it would require massive computing power to access the entire blockchain. Consequently, chances of fraud and repudiation are also eliminated.

2. Better Transparency

Since it is decentralized, Blockchain can allow your company to securely and transparently deal with your customers without the need for a financial institution such as a bank or a third party broker to facilitate this. The elimination of these ‘middlemen’ will also bring about greater efficiency and speed in all your dealings.

3. Improved User Privacy Control

With concerns about personal data security on the rise, CRM systems will have to address them by adjusting how they handle customer data. Owing to its decentralized and secure nature, blockchain gives way to the idea of a self-sovereign identity. It can store and encrypt personal information and verify this upon inquiry without actually sharing any specifics with the concerned parties, granting users greater control over their identity.

4. Data Cleansing

Whether it’s due to inept data import tools or human negligence, CRM users all over the world have to deal with inaccurate or duplicate data at some level. With blockchain in place, a customer can have their very own personal block that presents companies with a unified and accurate picture of their personal information, past transactions, subscriptions, etc. Hence, blockchain helps these companies circumvent the issue of inaccurate, obsolete and duplicate data records altogether. This consequently yields better insights into customers and helps businesses engage them more effectively.

5. Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs aim to drive profits by adding value to the customer experience. However, due to their variable mileage, volatile value and associated privacy concerns, they prove to be cumbersome for customers and yield a low ROI. However, in a manner very similar to cryptocurrencies, brands can make use of blockchain to reimagine and reinvigorate their loyalty programs.

With blockchain consumers would have a single decentralized wallet, compatible with all brands. They would not be bound by the rules and limitations of individual brands and point redemption would be greatly simplified. The consumer will have far greater control over the whole experience and brands will complete for their wallet by offering them better deals.

The Bottom Line!

Blockchain will not only change how we approach CRM but has the potential to fundamentally revamp business operating models in general. With the technology still in its preliminary phase, this seems like a bold claim to make. However keeping in the view all that it’s capable of, we believe it is a justifiable one.

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Sales activities do not keep confined to corporate workplaces anymore. And neither are sales executives. It is quite common to see sales professionals working in subways, coffee shops, traffic, parks and in the most unconventional places. Accelerating the targeted sales figure each time, getting handsome commissions, and closing huge deals gives an unmatchable thrill to sales executives and keeps them motivated.

Well, although you may pride in the fact that your sales team is tech savvy and is painting the town red; they do need to update customer data and other details in their CRM. And that is not possible if they do not have the CRM software in their fingertips. This the idea of a CRM mobile Appstemmed up. Several CRM users make the most out of these apps to handle customer relationships on their fingertips.

If you are planning to have a CRM app for your company, it must include certain features. Let us know about these features in detail:

Task Assignment & Collaboration

Sales processes in huge organizations can be prolonged and intricate. And if you run one of such companies, it is imperative to have a feature that enables you to work in collaboration. Some CRM apps have features that confine the access to the data pertaining to them and the collaborative functions are enabled on the website app.

During such times, if you have a SugarCRM system, you can make use of SugarCRM Pluginsthat provide you with activity feeds wherein you can address your colleagues and assign them with different tasks. You can also look for team messaging apps to solve your purpose. By doing so, you can enable seamless communication throughout the team.

Route Planning & Geo Location

As we all know, sales executives do not keep confined to one place. They need to visit different clients and plan their routes accordingly. Now, to make sure that they do not spend a lot on energy resources while visiting clients, a geolocation feature can come of help. Using it, sales agents can map routes between different client locations using real-time alerts. One can also apply custom filters and view different sales territories based on different criteria.

A feature like this not only saves energy resources but also saves a lot of time. Sales executives can prioritize their appointments effectively and undertake different sales activities without any glitches. They can also mark opportunities as pins.

Offline Access and Online Sync

Working from remote locations is quite a common deal for sales executives. Often during such times, updating records becomes impossible. A superior quality mobile app should provide users with the facility to create and assign tasks, view records, and update them even when internet connection is absent. Once the connection comes back, the sync should happen seamlessly.

For example, if one of your team members is working from the subway inside a tunnel, it does not mean they have to stop working in the absence of internet connection. They can keep working and as and when the internet comes back, the data synchronization happens with ease.

Conclusion

While looking for a CRM mobile app, it is quite likely that you might find several apps that are available for free. However, you need to ensure that it is compatible with your CRM system. For example, if you are looking for a SugarCRM mobile App, you can make a list of features you would want them to have and you are sure to find a suitable one. We wish you the best!

SugarCRM’s next product release, known as Sugar 8, is just out and includes all the features from the last two product releases and Spring ‘18. Here’s a look at some of the great new features new to on-site users in this update.

A Brand New Look & Feel

Sugar 8 includes a new user interface that is cleaner, more modern, and more consistent. While the switch from Sugar 6 to Sugar 7 was a challenge for some companies, the upgrade to Sugar 8 should be more straightforward merely because these changes are visual updates only to HTML and CSS. The new appearance is more intuitive than ever and now matches the mobile app design for consistency across devices.

Product Catalog Dashlet

The new Product Catalog Dashlet lets users click on items within a product catalog and quickly add them to a quote or other documents that they generate in Sugar. The product catalog is a visual representation of all your products, available within the intelligence panel.

Interactive & Actionable Drill-Through Charts

Another reporting improvement! Users can click on a segment of a chart or graph and see a drill down of the data within that segment. Once users are in the list view, they can modify data using in-line editing.

New Emails Module

The old email client (did anyone even use that?) has been deleted and replaced with a much-improved emails module. The new module is built on the sidecar framework (coding speak for the fancy side panel) and allows you to preview emails from subpanels or list views by clicking on the eye icon.

Closing Thoughts

The Sugar 8 release will also include several brand new features from the coming Spring ‘18 release. The details of this release haven't gone public yet--so we can’t spill the beans (or the sugar cubes). Stay tuned on April 27th for a release recap.

P.S. In late 2017 Sugar updated their release schedule--get the scoop on thathere. Since then, on-demand users see a product release once per quarter, and on-premise users get a roll-up release once per year.

We have extensively covered the top CRM implementation mistakesadopters make that negatively impacts their ROI. It’s good to have a neatly chalked out strategy and some idea of what goals you want to achieve by implementing a CRM. However, this is not all you need to be on the lookout for. Even if you have got your CRM up and running perfectly, it may not be always be smooth sailing from here onwards. There might be some areas where your CRM is being underutilized or some bad decisions or exercises getting in the way of all your efforts. With this in mind, we present the top 5 CRM best practices that will help you get the most out of your CRM.

1. Automate Repetitive Tasks

The primary reason you adopted a CRM in the first place was to save time and make your life a little easier. However, having to spend countless hours manually entering data into the CRM, preparing reports, prioritizing leads and writing emails goes totally against that. Tedious, repetitive tasks are a common feature of most jobs and separating these from challenges that really deserve your attention is essential for taking your productivity to the next level. This is where CRM workflow automations come in to play. They allow you to easily set up business rules, alerts and follow-up triggers, allowing you to streamline common business processes such as managing approvals, lead generations and other sales processes. Moreover, you can set up personalized email templates and send them out automatically in response to a predefined trigger.

2. Make data-driven decisions with CRM analytics

Your CRM collects and stores petabytes of valuable customer data. Moreover, most modern day CRMs come equipped with predictive analytics out-of-the-box. Consequently, making data-driven decisions has become both convenient and essential. If you are not using your CRM for analytics and ignoring precious data, you may as well not use the CRM at all. Thus, instead of letting your data gather dust, make use of the tools at your disposal and track the right metrics to gain deeper insights into your customers, make better decisions and boost overall performance.

3. Cleanse your CRM data of the clutter

More data doesn’t always equate to more power. Bad or unnecessary data can bog down your ability to make informed decisions by distracting you from intel that really matters. From inaccurate forecasting to wasting resources to chasing dead prospects, the consequences can be dire. Moreover, storing and maintaining this data can be cumbersome and expensive. Thus, it is a good idea to schedule regular data cleansing and deduplication. Ensuring your CRM data is free from obsolete, duplicate or incorrect data entries, helps your data represent your current state of affairs more accurately and the actionable insights you derive from this are more in line with reality.

4. Invest in a scalable CRM

Your business might be small right now, but it’s not going to stay that way for long. At least we hope not. Your team size will multiply, your business processes would diversify and become more complex and the rules of the game would change. Not only should your CRM be able to stay on top of these aspects but also grow along with your company. Switching over to a new CRM at a later stage is likely to disrupt all business activities and employee productivity. You can avoid the hassle of data migration and adopting a new CRM altogether by opting for a CRM that is scalable and capable of preemptively accommodating business growth from the very first day.

5. Leverage CRM Customizations and Integrations

You probably knew this one was coming. However, it can’t be stressed enough that it is difficult for a common CRM to fully cater to the needs of a unique business such as yours. Moreover, the business landscape is evolving all the time and your vanilla CRM is probably going to have a hard time keeping up with it. Thus, it makes perfect sense to employCRM integration with the right third party apps and appropriately customize it according to your needs. These will tailor your CRM to your exact business processes and equip it to virtually handle any challenge thrown at it. Our team of CRM experts can help you understand your exact needs and provide you optimal solutions based on best practice. Feel free to Contact us for your FREE consultation session. We will be happy to help!

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